Growing Carrots From Seed

How To Grow Carrots

I fondly remember going over to my Grandfather’s house as a child during the summertime. I would run from my Dad’s truck straight to the garden to pull a nice juicy carrot!

Carrots are a must for most northwest gardeners, as they grow rather easily, store well and they have so many different uses in the kitchen.

Planting Carrots

To start, dig your soil over a foot deep and be sure to clear out any rocks or debris that you find. Otherwise you very well could end up with stunted carrots. Carrots love sandy, loose soil, if it’s too compacted they won’t be able to “dig” down into the Earth and reach their full potential. We usually just just a small amount of 5-5-5 organic fertilizer and some well rotted compost. Too much fertilizer will cause your carrots to fork out.

Carrot seeds are rather small, it’s rather easy to plant too many and end up thinning for hours! I like to mix the seeds with a tiny bit of dirt or sand and sprinkle them down the row.

Plant the seeds 1/4″ deep, no deeper than 1/2″. If you plant them to shallow, they can easily wash away from watering or rain. Plant them too deep, your seeds can rot.

Caring For Carrots

Keep your carrots evenly watered during germination. Remember, you must water gently until your carrots sprout as you don’t want to wash your tiny seeds away. Even moisture is key, they are a root crop, you don’t want to drown them! Just keep them evenly moist and you’ll be fine.

Try to keep them as weed free as possible, especially weeds with tap roots that will compete for space underground.

Harvesting Carrots

Aaah, the best part! Harvesting depends on how you want to use them. Baby carrots (1/2″ or so in diameter) are sweeter and great for salads. Or you can let them grow a little longer, up to 1-1/2″ or more for soups and stews.

Make sure you pull them by the base of their green tops, otherwise the tops can rip off making it a little harder to get them out of the ground.

Once harvested and rinsed, cut the tops off down to an inch or two. You can store them in damp sand layered in a container, or chop them up and keep them in the freezer.